“I got to a point where I was thirsty for a different life.”
Brooke, Stand in the Gap graduate
Brooke was incarcerated at Mabel Bassett when she first met Stand in the Gap’s Kathy Peacock. Kathy was teaching Stand in the Gap’s Women in Transition course. Brooke had signed up because she was required to take some classes. But when she heard Kathy’s personal story of addiction, incarceration, and redemption, Brooke says she realized that “[Mabel Bassett] wasn’t the end of my story. It was the beginning of something new.”
Brooke ended up taking the course 3 times with Kathy and twice with Rhonda Bear after being transferred to Eddie Warrior. “Every time I took it,” Brooke says, “I got something new out of it. The toxic relationships, the anger issues, it covered so much. And I was finally ready to look at that part of my life.”
After she was released, Kathy matched Brooke with a Stand in the Gap small group.
Brooke says, “God put the right people in my group. They are not only my Stand in the Gap family, they are my sisters for life now. The fear of being alone keeps people in addiction. But when I was ready to let go of everything from my past, God replaced it 10-fold above my expectations.”
Today, Brooke and her “sisters for life” are forming a new Stand in the Gap small group around another woman who has recently been released from prison. Stepping into Kathy and Rhonda’s shoes, Brooke is ready to share the hope that they shared with her.
“I have been given such a blessing in my life,” Brooke says. “If I don’t give it back, then it’s wasted.”
A 2015 TED Talk with millions of views is based on the idea that “the opposite of addiction isn’t sobriety, it’s connection.”
When people are given the opportunity to form safe, healthy relationships with God and with other people, the draw of substance abuse diminishes and lasting life change occurs.
This is Stand in the Gap.
Brooke’s life looks entirely different because she isn’t alone. Now, she’s able to help a woman like her change her life too.
Will you help us invite more women into stories like Brooke’s?
Fund the Course
$5,000
Your support empowers Stand in the Gap staff like Kathy and Rhonda to offer our Women in Transition course in Oklahoma prisons and jails.
Fund the Volunteers
$1,000
Your support recruits, trains, and supports the volunteers who become “sisters for life” in Stand in the Gap small groups.
Fund the Woman
$500
Your support sponsors women like Brooke, empowering her to build a foundation that future generations can stand on.
